Grandpa grow!

[MiGrampa]

That makes sense. I've noticed the bud sites on the gorilla roadkill seem bigger, both strains r noticeable better than my previous. I have plenty of seeds from that place and will probably never use em. I'm getting some seeds tmrw from a guy on here, First Lady and Fryday Boof will be my next grow. But yes, PLENTY of sites going on!!

Yeah, I was gifted a micro that covers ur camera phone and it was extremely hard to use and results were shite. I ended up getting a wifi microscope. Even though I have shaky hands, still much easier and better quality pics.

Mine is mounted on an ancient photographer's tripod that once upon a time was used with 35mm film cameras. I'd look into ways to mount it so you can get a steady well focused shot.

 

[Skinnypuppy80]

By the way, a tornado came through my area last night and the only power we have is through our generator ... Yes, the grow is on the generator circuit too, Here's a nice picture of the Gorilla RoadKill. The buds are the size of large gatorade bottles.

View attachment 101751

Damn! A tornado! That sux man, good thing u have a generator. Lol @ on the circuit, I c ur priorities r on point! We've got a few thunderstorms in the last week, I won't be prepared for power outages though. Will have to phone a friend if that happens.

https://budbuilders.org/attachments/gorilla-roadkill-5-16-25-jpg.101751/

Very nice!!

 

[MiGrampa]

Damn! A tornado! That sux man, good thing u have a generator. Lol @ on the circuit, I c ur priorities r on point! We've got a few thunderstorms in the last week, I won't be prepared for power outages though. Will have to phone a friend if that happens.

https://budbuilders.org/attachments/gorilla-roadkill-5-16-25-jpg.101751/

Very nice!!

I have 2 refrigerators, a 22 cubic foot upright freezer, the router, modem, tv, the grow lights and a lamp running on my generator right now.

 

[Skinnypuppy80]

Mine is mounted on an ancient photographer's tripod that once upon a time was used with 35mm film cameras. I'd look into ways to mount it so you can get a steady well focused shot.

Solid advice! I'll have to dig out some speaker stands from storage. Forgot I had them till u mentioned ur tripod

 

[smoke]

I believe ppl have different opinions on when and how often to do water swaps? Would like to hear from both sides

×water is changed when the plants stop eating

 

[Skinnypuppy80]

Salutations all! Did my 2nd water change on the day 29 flower, hopefully the last one! Ph at 5.9 and ppm at 430(5x.) This is my actual first(successful?) grow in the rdwc. My first grow was in a dwc, much easier to do water changes. Dwc was a 7gal bucket, now I have 5(including res) 13gal buckets, big difference. To simplify things, I think I've heard ppl putting Benny's in their ro barrel, is that a thing?

Also got my seeds for my next grow today, First Lady and Fryday Boof. Anyone grow these b4? Thanks for any responses to my newb questions!

 

[GrumpAzz]

I believe ppl have different opinions on when and how often to do water swaps? Would like to hear from both sides.

So I'm a bit flexible with my setup. I have a 50 gallon RO res so that's my limiting factor.

My system holds ~34 gallons. I usually only use 34 on a res change with my transition from grow to bloom nutes. I'll vacuum out the plant sites so I know my ratios are in check. So... most res changes take around 28 gallons so my top-off resevoir is stuck with what is left. When it runs dry is when I change the res. Sometimes I'll leave the rez and just mix up a new top-off batch. Like I said, I'm flexible with my rez changes because sometimes I'm not so flexible with my time.

A good rule if thumb that i've seen tossed around is to do a res change when the plants have drank the system's amount of water. Meaning... if your system holds 20 gallons, change the res after you've topped off 20 gallons total. This can be excessive if your plants are still eating, as @smoke said above.

My first grow was in a dwc, much easier to do water changes. Dwc was a 7gal bucket, now I have 5(including res) 13gal buckets, big difference. To simplify things, I think I've heard ppl putting Benny's in their ro barrel, is that a thing

I'm not knowledgeable of your setup but, if you haven't already, you can take the discharge line from your recirc pump and Tee it off to a drain.

I have a somewhat complicated manifold on my pump.

Using the same pump I can pump:
Top-off rez --> Drain
Top-off rez --> Control rez
Top-off rez --> Plant site waterfall system
Control rez --> Drain
Control rez --> Plant site waterfall system
Control rez --> Control rez (redundant mixing)

Yes.. Sometimes I get my valves confused..

 

[Skinnypuppy80]

I'm not knowledgeable of your setup

First off, that looks way nice and easy for water changes. My setup is real basic. I have a 4 site pa hydrofonics? system and besides it's reservoir, just a 55gl ro drum filled(float valve) by the ro system under my kitchen sink. My tent is in my bedroom, which is about 45% of my 2nd floor apartment. Currently for water changes, I pump out around 15gl b4 the weak pump won't pump more(cuz of distance and the rise to the "drain".) Than I have to take the 12gl shopvac for 2 1/2 rounds b4 I reuse that same pump to refill(44gal) the system from the ro barrel. It took me close to 2hrs today. My "drain" is my bathtub lol

 

[GrumpAzz]

First off, that looks way nice and easy for water changes. My setup is real basic. I have a 4 site pa hydrofonics? system and besides it's reservoir, just a 55gl ro drum filled(float valve) by the ro system under my kitchen sink. My tent is in my bedroom, which is about 45% of my 2nd floor apartment. Currently for water changes, I pump out around 15gl b4 the weak pump won't pump more(cuz of distance and the rise to the "drain".) Than I have to take the 12gl shopvac for 2 1/2 rounds b4 I reuse that same pump to refill(44gal) the system from the ro barrel. It took me close to 2hrs today. My "drain" is my bathtub lol

Hell yeah brother.

I'd suggest your next upgrade be a top-off resevoir. This will add some peace of mind knowing your water level is always where you want it as long as the top-off has water in it.

Are you mixing your nutes right into the control resevoir? I do my nute mixes in the top-off so that all the while, my plants are still happy in the water with their roots wet while I get the next batch ready. This also let's me have the mix just right before adding it to the system. I dont know how comfortable I'd be hitting my roots with one nute at a time, although I'm sure it's not terribly detrimental. And sorry if I've assumed incorrectly.

50 gallons of RO and a 4 site hydro system on the second floor of an apartment building is bonkers to me . No disrespect.
How's your downstairs neighbor's flood insurance?

 

[Skinnypuppy80]

Hell yeah brother.

I'd suggest your next upgrade be a top-off resevoir. This will add some peace of mind knowing your water level is always where you want it as long as the top-off has water in it.

Are you mixing your nutes right into the control resevoir? I do my nute mixes in the top-off so that all the while, my plants are still happy in the water with their roots wet while I get the next batch ready. This also let's me have the mix just right before adding it to the system. I dont know how comfortable I'd be hitting my roots with one nute at a time, although I'm sure it's not terribly detrimental. And sorry if I've assumed incorrectly.

50 gallons of RO and a 4 site hydro system on the second floor of an apartment building is bonkers to me . No disrespect.
How's your downstairs neighbor's flood insurance?

Lmao! Hopefully good I've had just one mishap with the humidifier(t7, like 4 gal) but was there to catch it thankfully. Still probably not the best idea to do what I'm doing where I'm doing it
I premix my weird mix of nutes in gal jugs and add that directly to the system res. I'll top off w the ro barrel and then add that premix to the desired ppm
Appreciate your response! I'm a newb in a undesirable space. Any and all suggestions r always appreciated, even the "stop doing hydro in a bedroom on a 2nd floor apt" !! Thanks for the suggestion, I'll look into it

 

[GrumpAzz]

Lmao! Hopefully good I've had just one mishap with the humidifier(t7, like 4 gal) but was there to catch it thankfully.

Man I love my T7. It's a beast.

Still probably not the best idea to do what I'm doing where I'm doing it

You're a grown man.. do as you please

I premix my weird mix of nutes in gal jugs and add that directly to the system res. I'll top off w the ro barrel and then add that premix to the desired ppm

ok cool. This works juat fine.

Appreciate your response! I'm a newb in a undesirable space. Any and all suggestions r always appreciated, even the "stop doing hydro in a bedroom on a 2nd floor apt" !! Thanks for the suggestion, I'll look into it

Nope. I'll never talk someone out of hydro. I started with Hydro and I dont see myself ever going another route. It's just too cool. Less of a farmer, more of a chemist. HOWEVER, in your situation, a water monitor might come in handy just in case.

 

[Skinnypuppy80]

Yeah, I've been looking into water alerts, like where they go off when water hits em. I dunno, I'm pretty careful and don't c any floods going on. that being said, yeah, something will fail at some time and shit will go south quick

 

[GrumpAzz]

Yeah, I've been looking into water alerts, like where they go off when water hits em. I dunno, I'm pretty careful and don't c any floods going on. that being said, yeah, something will fail at some time and shit will go south quick

Us stoners like to make simple mistakes.

I personally don't have a monitor, but my setup is in my basement where I've got a sump pump. I have flooded my tent a time or two, though. Neither time did water escape, luckily, but I unzipped to quite the surprise. Big ol' facepalm when that happens

 

[Skinnypuppy80]

I have flooded my tent a time or two, though. Neither time did water escape, luckily, but I unzipped to quite the surprise. Big ol' facepalm when that happens

So what happened? Just asking so maybe I can watch out for it? TBH, I was super freaked out when I put in the 55gal ro barrel. I probably should have some sort of a collection system under it in case the bottom valve fails completely. The valve is plastic and is already failing a little. If I didn't have a hose connected to it and run back to the top of the barrel, it'd b leaking onto the floor. Guessing a seal or something is bad? I dunno, I probably should've looked into that after the barrel was pretty much drained after yesterday's water change

 

[Skinnypuppy80]

The valve is plastic and is already failing a little.

It just started failing about a month ago, it's been full of water since November?

 

[GrumpAzz]

Each time was a slip of the mind.

First time was actually my bathroom that flooded. I was using a 30 gallon rain barrel for my RO. It came with a spicket on the bottom that I forgot to close. I was several hours before I realized.

Second time was in the tent. I forgot to shut the valve coming from the top-off resevoir after a res change so it pumped several gallons into the tent before I noticed..

 

[MiGrampa]

It just started failing about a month ago, it's been full of water since November?

It sounds like its time to take a trip to your local Menards store. Hopefully, you won't have much trouble finding an upgrade that will last. I wouldn't want to be the neighbor downstairs if everything let go and flooded the room.

 

[Skinnypuppy80]

I wouldn't want to be the neighbor downstairs if everything let go and flooded the room.

Nope!! If there was a complete failure, that'd be 50gal+ as depending if I was home or not, the ro would keep running.

 

[Skinnypuppy80]

My setup is a little reckless if not just pure stupidity. Hopefully I just didn't just jinx myself. Any thoughts on how I could contain the water if I did have a failure on the ro barrel? I thought maybe a kiddie pool but that wouldn't fit in the area the barrel is in

 

[steamroller]

They sell water heater drip pans that could be piped to drain any lower location.
None hold much water but they would deal with leaks as long as they can drain by gravity.

 

[Skinnypuppy80]

Salutations all u b e a utiful ppl! Day 35 into flip. W my tent setup in such a small area, it's a bitch! getting in close to the far right side of the tent. Anyways, plants are still doing ok, think I could be doing better though.


Not sure if the ends of leaves are light or nute burn, maybe nute? My 840w led is at 80%, and ppms(500) stays around 450. They r only drinking about 3gal a day(4 sites in mid flower.) I'm thinking of dialing back the light to 70% and c if that helps. My ph has consistently been dropping .3 - .4 in 24hrs, should I be looking at this consistent drop as a sign to change something? Also, mid 2 late flower I should have vpd around 1.2 - 1.4, yes?

Sorry to bother you ganja masters out there but would appreciate any and all thoughts, suggestions! @moe.red @smoke @GrumpAzz @Observer @Aqua Man @MiGrampa and all the others!

 

[MiGrampa]

Salutations all u b e a utiful ppl! Day 35 into flip. W my tent setup in such a small area, it's a bitch! getting in close to the far right side of the tent. Anyways, plants are still doing ok, think I could be doing better though.
View attachment 102665View attachment 102666View attachment 102667View attachment 102668View attachment 102669

Not sure if the ends of leaves are light or nute burn, maybe nute? My 840w led is at 80%, and ppms(500) stays around 450. They r only drinking about 3gal a day(4 sites in mid flower.) I'm thinking of dialing back the light to 70% and c if that helps. My ph has consistently been dropping .3 - .4 in 24hrs, should I be looking at this consistent drop as a sign to change something? Also, mid 2 late flower I should have vpd around 1.2 - 1.4, yes?

Sorry to bother you ganja masters out there but would appreciate any and all thoughts, suggestions! @moe.red @smoke @GrumpAzz @Observer @Aqua Man @MiGrampa and all the others!

I would dial back the light for one simple reason ... It slows down photosynthesis a bit and can buy you the time you need to sort through things. While maybe not every single leaf looks perfect, over-all your vegetation looks very good! The nice thing about lowering your light intensity is once you have things worked out, its easy to raise the intensity again.

 

[GrumpAzz]

First of all.. I feel honored to be lumped into the "Ganja Masters" group. I'm flattered.

Not sure if the ends of leaves are light or nute burn, maybe nute? My 840w led is at 80%, and ppms(500) stays around 450. They r only drinking about 3gal a day(4 sites in mid flower.)

I'd say 3/4 of a gallon per plant per day is pretty normal at this stage of flower. You're basically halfway through flower so that tracks. I'm guessing they'll increase their uptake to a gallon or more per plant in the next couple weeks.

I'm thinking of dialing back the light to 70% and c if that helps. My ph has consistently been dropping .3 - .4 in 24hrs, should I be looking at this consistent drop as a sign to change something?

450 ppm doesn't seem too high but a falling pH would suggest that they're drinking more than they're eating. Maybe you're ratios have gotten out of wack. I do see a bit of tip-burn that may also suggest too high EC, but it's not bad burn at all.

Like @MiGrampa said, overall, your plants are looking pretty good, but if you're worried about it, lower your light intensity for a few days while you get it figured out.

When was the last time you did a res change? Also, what nutes are you using and at what ratios? There could be an imbalance preventing uptake of one or more nutrients.

Also, mid 2 late flower I should have vpd around 1.2 - 1.4, yes?

Sounds good to me. Anything over 1 and under 1.6 should grow some decent buds.

-------

Looking good, bro. You're over the hump and almost into the home stretch. Hopefully another one of those fellas can chime in as well.

 

[Skinnypuppy80]

@GrumpAzz Ganja Master, of course duh

I did my 2nd change 6 days ago. As for the nutes, I'm using a complicated way of feeding em which I plan on changing once I use up all/most of the "unnecessary"? bottles of nutes and just use gh trio and calmag. Below r the nutes I add into gal jugs and than add that to the system to get the required nutes. But yeah, I wanna say that's nute burn and I'm just flushing money down the drain


My canopy is nowhere near even. The light is at a 35° tilt and the plants that r even further below the light r showing the yellow tips. I'll drop ppms down a bit.
Thanks for the input!! It's my first grow utilizing the whole tent. My only other grow was this 5x5 tent w the 4 13gal site pa fallponics system. In the sites I had fem white widow. 1 was a straight male, the other 3 hermed. I also squeezed in a dwc auto that was already flowering. It ended up herming but was the only 1 I brought to the finish line and got +10oz.

 

[GrumpAzz]

Yeah that's a lot of bottles to be messing with. I bought a bunch of the GH lineup when I first started and most of those bottles remain unopened.

I'm not familiar with TPS Silica so I'm not sure how strong of a buffer it develops. It's potassium silicate, so that's good. It's probably just a diluted version of what a lot of folks run, which is Agsil 16, a powdered form of it.

I don't want to tell you to stop using all the extra bottles. I get how it's seen as a waste. Overall your plants are doing good. We're just having ph issues. I've been there as well with daily adjustments. It gets frustrating.

I guess i'll advise to just stay the course with what you've been doing for now. If the plants seem to take a turn for the worst, maybe we'll need to figure something out. What I think is happening, is that with all the adjustments with pH Up, you've added too much potassium at this point, which may be reacting poorly with another nutrient leading to an imbalance. However, if the pH dives too hard or seems to be getting out of control, you may want to do a res change. Maybe more frequent res changes could help keep it from running away from ya.

@moe.red, any advice?

 

[moe.red]

Hey skinny sorry for being old and slow. Thanks @GrumpAzz for tagging me back in.

I need to get to a big screen so I can peep these plants a bit better. But it sounds like your question is about burned tips primarily and a hard down ph trend correct? If so I’m guessing they are symptoms of the same problem.

Ph should not require daily adjustment. So yeah we need to unpack what’s happening here and treat the root cause.

I’ll be back in a few hours and will get to a pc. I need to look closer before I say more. If you are online and have any specific things you want me to consider post them up.

 

[MiGrampa]

Hey skinny sorry for being old and slow. Thanks @GrumpAzz for tagging me back in.

I need to get to a big screen so I can peep these plants a bit better. But it sounds like your question is about burned tips primarily and a hard down ph trend correct? If so I’m guessing they are symptoms of the same problem.

Ph should not require daily adjustment. So yeah we need to unpack what’s happening here and treat the root cause.

I’ll be back in a few hours and will get to a pc. I need to look closer before I say more. If you are online and have any specific things you want me to consider post them up.

@moe.red I could be wrong because I'm not a hydro grower. However, if pH is fluctuating daily ... isn't that a sign to look at the RO buffering routine? Buffering RO is a balancing act. If the processed is rushed and not allowed enough time to stabilize, wouldn't that contribute to the problem he's seeing?

I bring this up because there's a routing using both pH up and down ... and time ... to reach a pH stable mix in the proper pH range. My premise is if it starts stable, it should remain stable longer despite the ebb and flow of the dissolved nutrients in the feed solution.

 

[GrumpAzz]

@moe.red I could be wrong because I'm not a hydro grower. However, if pH is fluctuating daily ... isn't that a sign to look at the RO buffering routine? Buffering RO is a balancing act. If the processed is rushed and not allowed enough time to stabilize, wouldn't that contribute to the problem he's seeing?

Yeah that's why I mentioned the TPS Silica. I can't really tell from his feedchart and not having experience with that particular silica product, but he might benefit from upping his dosage.

@Skinnypuppy80, when you first add your TPS Silica, what does the pH of your system rise to? I add my silica product first until I see an initial pH of 9-10. Then a heavy dose of pH Down to bring it back to 5.8-6.2. That helps create the buffer that @MiGrampa mentioned. It will eventually lose it's effectiveness as time goes on.

Establish that buffer before adding any nutes.

 

[moe.red]

@GrumpAzz Ganja Master, of course duh

I did my 2nd change 6 days ago. As for the nutes, I'm using a complicated way of feeding em which I plan on changing once I use up all/most of the "unnecessary"? bottles of nutes and just use gh trio and calmag. Below r the nutes I add into gal jugs and than add that to the system to get the required nutes. But yeah, I wanna say that's nute burn and I'm just flushing money down the drain
View attachment 102705

My canopy is nowhere near even. The light is at a 35° tilt and the plants that r even further below the light r showing the yellow tips. I'll drop ppms down a bit.
Thanks for the input!! It's my first grow utilizing the whole tent. My only other grow was this 5x5 tent w the 4 13gal site pa fallponics system. In the sites I had fem white widow. 1 was a straight male, the other 3 hermed. I also squeezed in a dwc auto that was already flowering. It ended up herming but was the only 1 I brought to the finish line and got +10oz.

OK man, sorry I abandoned you for a while. Thursday was my last official day at work. Been super busy during the transition. Now I have garage full of welders and tools and 2 decades of crap being stored / used at the job that I am sorting thru and selling off. Got a ton of extra hydro stuff if you need anything. I've taken apart more hydroponics systems than I care to admit. Always trying to squeeze just a little bit more out of my grows. It's a sickness, I know. I'm seeking professional help

So good news you got some weed. Fuck yeah. Not everybody does.

Growing side to side in the grow space is the goal. No issues there except harder to reach without access to the back. This is my son’s current grow he’s learning too

View attachment IMG_5310.mov


This one got away from us with 2 extra weeks of veg because of a timer malfunction. Too tall. I’ll make it work.

My ppm is 250 on the 500 scale. It gets to a high of 500 but happy place is 350. 250 means time to feed.

At this stage, I start with RO at <20PPM and add cal-mag to 150. That takes care of early flower and all the N it needs at this stage.
Add the pink stuff to 250 - 275 range.
Add the brown stuff (micro) to 350. That's a bit more N in that.
Now I add the green stuff based on what the plants are telling me. Sometimes none. Usually no more than 400ppm

I am constantly topping off with RO to keep the water level stable. This means the PPM lowers over time. You probably are not doing that, so the EC trend has a different meaning in your system, but the plant requirements are the same.

Thats it for this stage. Early flower.

I have not added any PH up or down in over 2 weeks. As we look deeper at your grow I'll explain how to do that.

For you,



RED - I'm reading you have PLENTY of N in there. Dark green, very shiny, and leaves tending to curl down on the edges rather than praying up.
Pink - is this the tip burn you are asking about?
Blue - petioles are different color based on access to photons. They are getting a tan where light hits them directly, and staying green in the shade. You can use this as a visual way to tune lights in some strains. Looks like what you are running is a good candidate.

Purple comes from anthocyanins. They are a flavonoid that has no positive impact on final product. If you are getting just the petioles turning color, it CAN mean you are getting too much light, too much UVA, or EC is too high. It can also be fine. What I see here is normal for pushing a little with PPFD. I see no alarms to back down the lights. That can change but right now I would leave it alone to minimize variables.

@moe.red I could be wrong because I'm not a hydro grower. However, if pH is fluctuating daily ... isn't that a sign to look at the RO buffering routine? Buffering RO is a balancing act. If the processed is rushed and not allowed enough time to stabilize, wouldn't that contribute to the problem he's seeing?

I bring this up because there's a routing using both pH up and down ... and time ... to reach a pH stable mix in the proper pH range. My premise is if it starts stable, it should remain stable longer despite the ebb and flow of the dissolved nutrients in the feed solution.

PH fluctuating daily is OK within a range.

5.5 - 6.5 is totally fine.

If you have to constantly make adjustments to keep it in that range, something is wrong.

Go to best case scenario - plants maintain that range with only the addition of nutes. That's what I have in that video. Healthy plants photosynthesizing properly are feeding the bennies carbohydrates. The bennies in turn help stabilize the PH.

• Environmental Control:
  Beneficial microbes can naturally regulate environmental conditions, including pH. They can help control harmful pathogens, which can release acids during decomposition and lower pH levels.
  
  
• Stress Reduction:
  
  Beneficial bacteria can reduce stress on plants, making them more resilient and able to maintain a stable pH.​
  
  ^^thanks AI

So what we are looking for is a balance. It's a lot like riding a bike or those damn hoverboard. Once you actually hit the sweet spot you wonder why you were making it so friggin hard. Steep learning curve.


Number 1 cause of PH trend down is decomposing roots or other organics. That's why we need to take it seriously. If the roots look like the ones @GrumpAzz just posted on his thread we need to look elsewhere for the ph issue. Next stop is water chemistry. Time to get simple with the bottles I think. But lets hear about or better yet see pics of the plants and roots today if you can. Focus on any areas you are concerned about.

 

[moe.red]

Establish that buffer before adding any nutes.

this is good advice. @Skinnypuppy80 can you explain how you go about top offs. and how you mix for them. Source water parameters.